LOCATION:
Located in Spokane, Washington, Monaghan
Hall is found on the campus of Gonzaga University, which is a private
school, founded and managed by the Jesuits.
DESCRIPTION:
This spooky-looking, 1898 mansion
was originally built by a pioneer, a James Monaghan. The mansion's former
owners sold it to Gonzaga University in 1942. Looking like a movie set
for an Alfred Hitchcock/Vincent Price movie, this "formidable"
three story mansion comes complete with a turret and a very wide porch
that circles around the entire mansion, which completely overshadows and
darkens the first floor windows, even on the sunniest days. Now called
Monaghan Hall, it houses the University's Music Conservatory, containing
all the music classrooms, practice rooms and the professors' offices,
much to the consternation of the music students during the 1974 - 1975
school year.
MANIFESTATIONS:
In response to fearful students, who
had heard the ghostly footsteps of an unseen presence, Father Leedale
decided to show students that there was nothing to be scared of by sleeping
in his office on a roll-away bed.
1) One evening, while the good
Father was about to unlock a classroom door, the handle of the door
turned suddenly by itself and the door was flung open by a hostile,
unseen presence.
2) One Evening, the Monaghan Hall
housekeeper heard a repeated refrain of organ music coming from the
dark, locked organ room. When she unlocked the organ room door, and
turned on the light, she saw the organ keys being diligently played
in time to the melody heard, with no visible player practicing.
3) About two months later, in the
evening, Father Leedale heard a flutist playing a melody, right in the
hall outside his studio door. When he looked out into the hall, the
music had stopped and no one was in sight. He found out later that this
musical tune that he had heard, was the same refrain that the housekeeper
had heard, coming from the organ room.
4) Father Leedale and a student
heard a growling noise, coming from a locked storage room in the basement.
When unlocked, there was nothing seen in the room, that could've made
this scary noise.
5) In an effort to discover who/what
this hostile, but musical unseen presence was, a complete search of
the mansion was conducted by Father Leedale, the Department Chairman
of Music, Daniel Brenner, and 2 guards. What they found on the third
floor was a hostile, oppressive, unseen presence that obviously wasn't
planning on leaving any time soon. The two guards felt this hostile
force holding and trying to strangle them. Daniel Brenner wasn't able
to move at all, and the good Father's skin reacted to something hostile,
cold and menacing, bearing down on them all. They all managed to escape
the third floor, and made plans to hold a rite of exorcism
6) On February 24, 1975, Father
Leedale, Daniel Brenner, who held the holy water, and a small group
of supporters all bravely gathered together in the mansion to go through
the rite of exorcism, which consisted of saying six prayers over a period
of four days, in hopes of forcing this unpleasant, bullying entity out
of the building. During the first prayer, Father Leedale's heavy wooden
cross that he wore around his neck, began to bang back and forth, against
his chest. Undaunted, Father Leedale simply held the cross firmly in
place with one hand, and held the prayer book with the other.
STILL HAUNTED?
No.
The exorcism was successful. By February
28th, 1975, this angry presence was gone from Monaghan Hall, much to the
relief of all who used the building. |
